Stride Efficiency Continued

Blog is back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud_XPH6Eix4

from the :55 to the 2:26. Near the 5.5f showing the nice strides of Regal Ransom and the #2 horse Rip Van Winkle, and the more upright nicely striding Colonel John. Avoid for the present the (seminal) Q as to why these enthusiastic nicely striding horses suffer quail death in the stretch. At the :55 mark they look like they'll be hard to catch.

And, world class jocks with their riding styles. Mostly sitting chilly with Colonel John's jock perfectly over the center of gravity and variations of the over the center of gravity position from the others--some better/some worse.

Are these riders doing anything to get these nice strides? Jock involvement in the horse's stride? Anything stride related the jocks are doing? And, deeper analysis, how would these same horses look running with a bad stride, or an inefficient stride. What would be different (if anything)?
The Q was posed, if we're going to talk about optimal stride for our horse, is it necessary to first understand the concept.

Einstein's jock (red stripes on sleeves) looks to be pushing on the neck a little more than the others. The body of the jocks are still over the center of gravity, but each jock has a little different version of forearm motion on the reins. What's with that--hand motion going back and forth in tandem with the bit in the horse's mouth as the horse's head is bobbing up and down.

Observing these riders--anything else any of them is doing other than:

sitting still like a statute over the horse's center of gravity
forward-backward arm motion on the reins in rhythm with the head bobbing of the horse.

Watching these jocks closely there is nothing else visible that they are doing in this race riding at this point in the race. Down the home stretch there is of course much added motion.

Are the jocks possibly doing anything that we're unable to see in a vid, e.g. with their hands on the reins. U hear jocks brag they have superior hands. What, goes on with the hands in terms of stride?

Keeping focus on "stride efficiency" I can answer these Qs only with my own experience and what I hear here and there. Qs I have asked, although to date I have yet to ever persevere in questioning a jock about riding technique. Whenever I started such a conversation--how do u do this and that, they mostly seem reluctant to speak, and what comes out is primarily gobbly gook. There's a reason for that which goes right on with my explanation---like the expert fiddler, these jocks are unable to verbalize how they do what they do because there is a multiplicity of combinations that lend themselves poorly to explanation.

But, I'll give it a stab, next post.

Training:
mostly off with pasture romps. On our horse after I get this mythical horse around the race track.

A Class in Stride Efficiency

The Q whether there is such a thing. Can we see and identify stride efficiency in an actual race. Is there any difference at all between horse technique, jock technique. Are some of the jocks better than others in getting a stride on their horses. Analyze this!

Take a moment to look at the following vid that shows superb closeup race riding from the 55 sec mark of the vid to the 2:26 mark. The assignment is to replay in 5.5f to 3.5f over and over several times. Pause it. Check out the leaders, jocks and horses and figure out what they are doing in terms of technique. Is there any difference in what these riders are doing with their horses, and what are they doing, if anything, to affect the stride of their horses?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud_XPH6Eix4

Comment next post.

Training:
Wed. 11/23: speed pasture romp.
Thurs. 11/24: riderless with several full speed short bursts in the mud.
Fri. 11/25: Off.

Storm Cat

What Is Stride Efficiency?

Ok, I got a little carried away with the Buck Mountain Band. Downgraded to Grade II. Former fiddler and son of a fiddler here and so we do recognize fiddling. The Buck Mountain fiddler shows nice technique and musicianship and in contrast to the others a nice ability to double note his fiddle--two notes simultaneously--compared to the rest. The Dublin fiddlers were good also. Tough choice between the two. HOWEVER, all pales in wake of those world class musicians playing with Mountain Heart. Would we e.g. prefer the jock equivalent of Jim Van Cleve on our horse for today's race. There is a difference in ability that we need to spot.

How Jim Van Cleve became Jim Van Cleve is a similar inquiry to what I'm trying to do here. The passion of Jim Van Cleve for his craft:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqp-Sn_ecK8

"...wow, this thing rocks". If we could get our horse situation to that point!

Our rider is at the 4.5F with focus on stride efficiency. Last post ask Q how is stride efficiency got. In the usual form of belaboring detail on this blog, if we want to know how stride efficiency is got, do we have to first recognize what stride efficiency is?

And, what we're talking about is optimal stride efficiency for each horse with the starting point that I've yet to ride a horse that has the same exact stride as the next. While you might think that four legged animals all stride the same, when you get on board you quickly recognize this as untrue. Every horse has it's peculiar style which, in terms of optimal efficiency, is a complicating factor. Let's take a look.

Tom Ivers was big on stride efficiency noting that we'd like to see the horse be able to push off strongly with it's rear end simultaneously with the front in lifting up and forward with max reach of the front legs jaguar style. Butt down, front up and forward with reach! We've all seen these sort of slow mo vids. The efficiently ground flicking animal that seems to be flying through the air.

Is this really what happens with most of them? There are two kinds of stride for horses in terms of hoof to ground contact with the front legs. One of them is the "flicking" stride. The other is the "pounding" stride. The difference between the flicker and the pounder likely has to do with conformation, and may also have to do with such things as weight--the horse is simply too heavy to lift itself off the ground to flick--or whether the horse is left footed or right footed--unknown but I suspect left footed horses have a harder time flicking--or, simple habit and the way they learned to run as foals. Maybe purely genetic with some.

More important to note is that the slower strides are all "flicking" strides. Only when the horse get's past a certain speed does the slow flicking stride become the bounding or pounding race stride. There seem to be serious style changes at the following speeds: :15.5, :14, :13 and 12.5. The most dramatic changes come at :14 and :12.5. :14 is the transition into really fast work as opposed to the moderate stride of the the two minute gallop which is just an exaggerated slow ground flicking stride. At 12.5 the horse starts sprinting. I am unable to comment on strides that are faster than about :11.9 or :11.8. I'd suspect in those faster speeds most horses, for reason stated below, primarily change strides into ground pounding.

There are interesting differences in both front and rear leg motions at these various speeds and particularly in the sprinting gear. Next post.

Training:
November training implosion for various reasons. Will get into when we get the hypothetical horse around the track. A wow pasture romp today in wet weather.

Ragtime Annie And Stride Efficiency

Mission at 4.5f for rider--stride efficiency. Excuse getting carried away with an obvious point. Same song, different players:

Maiden race:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp78QsairFE

Exercise rider:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=TXGwQe_QCnU

Allowance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrEASNT6jbM&feature=related

Minor stakes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkxwxhaVN_s

Grade II

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD1JD9t2Yno

BC Classic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIUW92GvUb4

Training:
11/19: Off.

Stride Efficiency At The 4.5F

Check out the saddle cloth. For we oldsters, Thirty Six Red circa 1990, Mike Smith on board apparently after a big win.

Tom Ivers used to go nuts when the rider prior to M. Smith was riding Thirty Six Red on the front end of the Kentucky Derby on an utterly loose rein. By Ivers riders using a loose rein (rein with slack--and with 36 Red it was complete slack--never seen another rider do that since) violates the principle of stride efficiency which, according to Ivers was got by "rounding on the bit".

"Rounding on the bit". Sounds good. Is that what happens? At this point of our hypothetical two minute gallop--5f to 5f--rider and horse have passed the starting point of the 5f and approach the 4.5f.

Rider's mental state at this point on the race track was discussed last post. This post discuss bit work and rein work and their role in controlling the horse in terms of direction, speed and possibly most importantly stride efficiency.

Let's presume that each horse has an optimum stride where the horse's bounding (or pounding, as the case may be) mechanics are as good as they're going to get. For each horse, reaching this optimal state of movement will mean maximum speed over distance as well as maximum energy conservation within the speed parameters. Horse racing is bounding weight around the race track. The farther off from optimum stride efficiency the horse is, the less competitive the horse will be for reasons logical and obvious.

And, the farther the horse travels the more important stride efficiency. Stride efficiency is more important in routes than sprints and hence, in your choice of jocks whereas in a sprint you may look for a highly aggressive rider, in a route might be wise to consider the one that gets a stride on his horse. You can spot these boys and their styles by sight.

For the owner/trainer then, how is stride efficiency got. Is it got in the morning, by practice, is it merely a function of rider skill, or something else? Was 36 Red necessarily inefficient because he was running on a lose rein?

My own experience with this--I have been riding steadily since 1999--is that every time I get on a horse I am mindful of stride efficiency and used to be mindful of Iver's concept of "rounding on the bit". Try to explain this next post.
Training:
Wed. 11/16: Riderless with some nice spurts.
Thurs. 11/17: Off. Rider/trainer unavailable.
Fri. 11/18: Major wind event. Had to go riderless. Some short spurts.

Past The 5F And Into The Work

Again the Q, how did Rachel Alexandra become Rachel Alexandra? The earlier RA breeze video I'd posted shows near perfect rider work and, in terms of animal training, also near perfect trainer work, even if u might criticize the exercise physiology a bit.

Right now the blog is on animal compliance, and hence animal training as we go around the race track. With one that has already been through this mill and obviously been in very skillful hands, as Rachel, it becomes very easy IF u continue to do things right. First, as owner/trainer, it helps to know what is correct. Again, you can see the deficiencies at every track every day. Mostly u'd prefer what u'r watching to be other than ur animal.

Our rider, and let's suppose he's as obviously skilled as the one in the photo--perfect balance, perfect form, very nice rein work and rein control, working with the stride of the horse from what shows---has about the 5.5f changed to the right lead, gotten the expected lead change burst from the horse and brought it under control, has hit the 5f at what he calculates is a :15 sec./f (we're doing a 2m gallop) rate of speed. As he passes the 5f, what now?

If u think u know everything about training race horses u should be able to answer the Q. What now, as the horse passes the 5f starting point of its work. What is going through the rider's mind, and what is he supposed to be doing?

Let's suppose at this point the rider figures he's done a very decent job in this work. He's done everything successfully to this point that's been blogged about. As he's heading for the 4.5f he looks to the left for a panorama of the entire infield of the race track with a blurring of white rail posts and ground passing below about 26 mph. There's a mixed sensation--wheeee this is fun combined with (as the jock hears and feels the lead front leg thud into the ground with each stride--we're into serious stuff now) the concern that the cannon survives to the next stride.

The skillful rider will also gather himself at this point with his mission. Thought--hey, I'm into the work, what I'd like to do at this point is get the horse into a mechanical efficient stride. This should be easy for the fresh animal from the get go and increasingly more difficult as the horse goes around the race track and muscular fatigue accumulates. The jock wants the last few strides of this two minute gallop to be absolutely as picture perfect as the first few. The idea would be to give rider help to the horse to achieve this goal of the perfect two minute gallop.

To achieve this goal of the perfect two min. gallop, which means efficient mechanical and consistent striding all the way around the race track concerns are

rider position on the horse
rider tension and feel on the reins and bit
rider monitoring correct speed and stride length

If you watch ten jocks ur likely to see 10 riding styles, and let's note there is more than one way to conduct a successful ride. But every rider, as he goes into the work need understand that maximum stride efficiency for the horse requires perfect rider balance over the center of gravity of the horse and correct shift or maintenance of that position with the forward propulsion of each stride. For most of these riders this is fairly easy, but let's observe that some are better than others. If we have one of those that is just a little off, over the long haul as owner trainers, we might need to work with that rider. Am now out of time and will get into the bit work next.
Training:
Wed. 11/16: riderless with some nice full speed bursts.
Thurs. 11/17: off

Horse At The 5F

In the picture is worth a thousand words category, enlarge this one.

For the experienced numerous things will strike u. The filly in the middle wears a bit with rings as cheek pieces and without caveson, the outside filly wears a "ring" bit with caveson. Why?

If u look at the shoes, I must say if I were riding these horses at speed I'd be a little(very?) concerned about lack of traction and slipping on that grass with this sort of shoe style. Horses do slip and fall in grass races. Seen it happen. Do they have level grips (John Henry shoes) in Australia?

Notice the outside jock has his boot in a plastic stirrup that is less likely than an aluminum stirrup to release in event of trouble, and the girth strap is flapping on this horse.

What's going through the minds of these jocks at this moment? I'd guess that the thought processes vary with the particular mindset of each rider varying from pea hearted to dare devil. Do jocks, as urs truly exercise rider, calculate their own individual exit with every foot fall of the horse. Unknown. I've yet to ask, but you see some of this in the intense concentration on these rider's faces. They are looking at the ground in front of them with an eye to the company on each side, staying upright and safe on the horse while simultaneously doing their reign and bit work to keep the horse moving at max speed.

While professional jocks such as this give an aura of confidence the fact that all three of these horses in the completion of the present stride are about to stretch out those front legs and slam them with tremendous force into the ground should give a rational rider some pause for thought with each and every stride--is that front cannon, the condylar aspect, the sesamoids going to hold up for one more stride particularly (in the USA) with the deficient warm up and likely training deficient in achieving fracture resistance. Probably good that most jocks are other than the brightest bulbs on the planet.

For my mythical animal who, having changed to the right lead at the 5.5f and sits right before the 5f pole at the start of the work, what's going through the rider's head and the horse, and how does the rider get and maintain that 2 m. rate of speed, next post.
Training: Off today.

Training

Stumbled into that L. Bernstein vid and posted it as a e.g. of excellence. Would avoid, normally, the gay persuasion including L. Bernstein on this blog and something of that ilk would have to be fairly special to over come my prejudices. High intelligence is rare when u think about it, and the Bernstein vid may be a foremost e.g. Best 6 min ever possibly, of a human talking? Rivals, almost the subject--An Die Freude

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=2aQ8DUHMg7o

After a week off from 2 feet of rain as measured in my barrels and completely losing my mojo in process, we're back at it:
Sat.: riderless 10 min with bursts.
Sun: 4 times trot with a little gallop up and down hill.
Mon: 4 times trot gallop up and down hill. Very professional by our pony! Breeze coming Wed. weather permitting.

BC PPs

Star of the BC at left.

Some of the BC winners intrigued me enough that I did today spring the $3 for the BC PPs. The present topic here is training and performance. Do the PPs show anything that helps?

My first interest was the BC Marathon won by Afleet Again at 41.60 odds. Surely there was some good training there, right?

Vid. stolen from Left At The Gate. Does that make u want to get right out there? And, looking PPs, Afleet Again, shows how many pre-BC works? Zero, zip, none. Afleet did finish 2nd in a mile 1/16th race on Oct. 9. Otherwise, nada, zip. OK Afleet breeding is the marathoners Afleet Alex and Wild Again. That explains it. Who knows what they did with the horse as it must have been something significant. Connections shocked, category inexplicable, see Bill O'Gorman book.

Maybe the Marathon second Bird Run trained by Bill Mott shows something? Just two 5f breezes , although, interestingly, after the 10/10 race Mott commits conventional trainer sacrilige and breezes the horse 4f in :48.2 5 days post race, and so, at least Bird Run has a nice sequence of race/breezing before the Marathon. Would have to ask Mott why he spaces them 7 days apart but breezes 5 days after the last race. Whatever.

The detested (on this blog) Aidan O'Brien wins with Wrote in the Juvenile Turf, worthy of comment here because I was highly impressed by the sire High Chapparral, and Green Desert always makes for a nice broodmare sire combo. Second place finisher from Woodbine trained by Ian Black does what passes these days for conventional training at the upper levels, basically 5f every 7 days, although this colt, interestingly does them primarily in :12s instead of Todd Plecher style in :12.3s.

Most interesting stuff in the sprint as Baffert's Euroears does the first 4f in :11 flats and then fades out of sight. Interesting stuff: Raced 10/1 and finished 8 of 8 in the slop. Lol. How's that for a BC prep. Apparently uninjured Baffert then reels off :48.2, 46.1, 56.3 and 57.4 averaging about 6 days apart into the race. Would Euroears be conditioned for this sprint off these works? The answer lies in that the BC race was only the 4th of the year for the horse. Far more expenditure of energy in racing than working and here on a deep difficult track. Nice try by Baffert. Fail. Probably for reasons of prior injury.

Hamazing Destiny by DW Lukas was noted earlier that questionable training showed in a :15 sec vid of obliviousness to leads and galloping on a beat up track. Add that HD last breezes 12 days out from the race. I am sure, however, the horse "looked" marvelous before he finished up the track. I am unable to consistently pick winners, but loosers I can generally snarf out on a short glance.

And, what's this? Good Lord. Bill Spawr breezing the winner Amazombie 2 days out from the race, 7 days out from the race and 7 more days out from the race. The horse has a total of 5 works/races in October. Have seen that before somewhere on this blog.

Typical Asmussen training for Turf Sprint winner Regally Ready, but note recent vids show Asmussen horses with significant gallop outs. More there than meets the eye in the PPs.

Dirt Mile: Nice Baffert training of The Factor. Will go with Bill Pressey's explanation re surface change as the likely explanation for the fade. Could also have been injury. Would Baffert be working too hard since Euroears also faded. Depends on what he does on off days. I am without any idea.

Don Von Hemmel, or more accurately Donnie to distinguish him from his father the Ak Sar Ben trainer, hits the big time with Caleb's Possey. Wtf. Take note these trainers are all doing every 7 day stuff now. That's good and a step up from where race horse training had been, which would be best explanation here: Good horse, good race strategy, average training.

I like all the Americans training their 1.5 mile BC Turf horses 4 and 5f trying to beat Europeans. Where is it written you have to be smart to be a horse trainer? Hence Nicholas Abbey.

In the 5 weeks before the BC Turf Mile Court Vision had 6 works. Fit horse, possibly? They need to figure out why the Europe Horses have to stay in the barn two days during quarantine. That is devastating to training. Why would it violate a quarantine to send a horse to the track? How far does an IQ of 150 get you on the race track--Exhibit A and B: Plecher's destruction of Sydney's Candy(soft breezing). Plecher's destruction of Uncle Mo.

I am expecting to see something significant in the Drosselmeyer PPs. (looks down at D PPs):
5f in 1:01 7 days out, 5f in 1:01 7 days prior, 4f in :47.3 7 days prior and raced a 2nd in Jockey Clug G. Cup on 10/1. I'll avoid checking, but suspect D is only horse in the field to have a nice pattern of 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 mile races. Indeed, and along with minimum style breeze work with perfect strategy/perfect ride is enough to run away from these in the stretch.

I humorously note Zito has graduated, apparently, to 5f breezing, that Game On Dude shows a typical Baffert pattern which is slightly more intense than "normal conventional". That Havre De Grace true to the should have stayed retired Larry Jones has only 3 works in month before race, and everything else is in the "norm" these days. Better norm than it used to be. Will be interesting how some of these young trainers coming up will try to beat these norms. (Trainer in the Photo at Top is Bill Spawr--award for best BC training job with Sprint Winner Amazombie. What got into Spawr all of the sudden?)
Training:
3 days of rain. Too wet to do anything but walk this morning. We decline.

Bit Work And Speed

Ring bit with spoons. Our worker is at the 6f heading for the 5f for a one mile 2m gallop. On board our jock is supposed to be doing everything right to perfectly accomplish this exercise so that when we're done we can go on to the next work as planned.
Assuming the well trained push button horse, what's going on in the rider's mind as he passes the 6f?

Two things actually. #1 transitioning from warm up speed to work speed, and #2 lead change ahead likely right before the 5.5f pole on the one mile track. As the gallop has been slow, this lead change is other than automatic with the horse who is yet without fatigue on the left lead.

So, two things have to be done correctly with one eye to the right hoping the starting gate is clear as we're hopping by. To the horse, of course, it is unknown whether today's gallop is just a routine slow gallop or otherwise. As always the horse will want to go and by this point on the race track probably starts to feel absence of the normal rein/bit restraint at the slow gallop. For the horse here, something's up.

With many of them, thus, they will speed up on their own at the 6f, or it takes very mild urging with one of the riding aids (foot pressure, voice, whip tap on shoulder, taking up the reins which really means just a slight shift--the horse will feel in its mouth even a slight movement on the reins etc. Noted last post that these signals trigger the flight mechanism in the horse or for the experienced campaigner that enjoys their work its merely the normal go signal.) For the rider here the problem is more one to restraint once you get to the correct speed than it is increasing the speed.

One other factor comes into play. We've just crossed the 6f, the speed up has begun, but there's a lead change ahead. First note that horses naturally speed up out of a lead change. Unknown exactly why, but suspect 1. lead changing itself takes effort and adrenalin, and 2. the horse goes from the fatigued leg to the fresh leg and is more easily thus to do what it wants, which is "go".

At any rate, the rider knows there's going to be a spurt at the 5.5 pole due to the lead change Again, for reasons unknown, the lead change at the 5.5 pole with every horse I've ridden is always, and each and every ride, the most enthusiastic lead change around the race track. The horse almost always will enthusiastically come out of the lead change at the 5.5f.

For this reason, the rider likely will decide to be at the :15 rate of speed coming out of the lead change at the 5.5f. That's the thought process--#1 get the lead, and #2 get the correct speed.

This has now occurred with the 5f just in front of the rider. The horse needs to be held at the :15 rate of speed and restrained from going faster. Role of rider and bit in this process, next post.
Training:
Three days of rain. Off.

Horse At The 5f Pole

The discussion was left with the Q: do the rider's "hands" make any difference in their ability to ride, change leads, and the other mechanical aspects of getting the horse around the track. Having myself ridden horses almost daily since the year 1999 I wish that this were true and that I'd be able to improve my riding merely through improved hand manipulation. My personal opinion is that the "hands on reins" soft feel--insensitive feel vis a vis the race horse is primarily myth although the situation may be imagined that the hand of the black smith may be clumsier than the seamstress.

The relevance to this discussion of getting the horse around the track as our horse goes past the 6f pole heading to the 5f to begin the 2m gallop at the 5f involves the Q of the correct manner to speed the horse into the :15s, but with many horses also the ability to restrain the horse to the :15s. The eager ones will certainly try to go faster. What is the role of rein work and bit work in this process, and is there anything the trainer can do from the ground?

First I'd like to give a e.g. with my horse Groovin' Wind as a late two year old-early three year old. I'd employed with lots of extra cash the best rider at the KY Horse Center in Lexington to ride Wind, a fellow named Kevin. $15/day at that stage. But Wind ran away with Kevin almost every single day. Kevin either could not or would not restrain the horse. This was before my riding days and at the time which it was--could not/would not--I didn't know. Kevin would come off the horse saying that he was unable to hold him.

The question was answered for me in 1999 when I started riding the horse at the Woodlands. Let's just say at that point I was 6 ft. 1.5 inches tall at 160 lbs with plenty of weight lifting strength in my arms and I too was unable to restrain the horse. Groovin' Wind ran away with me almost every single day, he'd frequently go at least an extra mile around the race track before I could stop him, and the memorable day was at the start of the 3rd go around the outrider galloping after me trying to help. They recognized Wind at this point. At the stopping point on the backstretch it generally took every bit of my strength to get the horse stopped and I then fully understood Kevin's problem with the horse at the KY horse center.

Thus the Q of rider control, the role of the reins, bit and body in this sense.

Let me first observe that you rarely see jocks unable to control horses or bring them to a stop, although it does happen. In this regard, my guess is that I'd be much more successful now in slowing Wind down then I was in my learning to ride days of 1999.

The point here is we want the correct speed for work mainly that the work fit into our training schematic and we can go on as planned. A too fast work might result, due to injury considerations, in scaling back the next work or two and hurting our horse's performance. A too slow work, and we may have wasted a whole day. There's also the work were part of it is too slow and then the jock makes up for it in the final furlongs which is another version of the imperfect work.

Thus it's important to be able to instruct the exercise rider or the less experienced (in this) or oblivious jock as to what we need to have done. Continue next post.
Training:
Interruption due to rain.

How A BC Classic Is Won

I am taking a DVD chess course by Joshua Waitzkin who won the following chess championships:
National Primary School.
Elementary School
Jr. High School
High School
U.S. Cadet
U.S. Junior Closed Chess Championships.

i.e. Waitzkin won it all as a child in the early 1990s. A game at age 11 with World Chess Champion Gary Kasporov ended in a draw.
We already know from the Scientific American study of genius related to performance that came out about 2008 that these young prodigies do have talent but the other factor was that at some point early in their lives they obsessed over their sport or craft, internalized all the details, and thereafter were mentally or physically simply ahead of their less energetic peers.

The Waitzkin DVD gives more insight into how Waitzkin became the player he was. The DVD contains many of Waitzkin's championship games with Waitzkin explaining them move by move. Common thread is Waitzkin saying, re a particular move under pressure, "remember that this move is for the national championship." Or the world championship. Apparently that one he lost.

Then in such a game on the DVD Waitzkin will say--look at this position. Calculate it out. What would you do? After you decide your move Waitzkin comes back on and explains a series of "calculations" he made in deciding the correct move. To Waitzkin each position is a puzzle solvable merely by excruciating attention to detail. As I listen to Waitzkin explain what he did my thoughts go to "enough already". I am personally simply unready or unwilling to mentally obsess over various permutations of chess board squares to this extent. I decide that this level of chess instead of being above me, although without a doubt a high IQ is necessary simply to remember all possibilities, is so intricate I am without the mental energy to engage at this level.

The bottom line on Waitzkin's success is that he breaks down and takes apart every single possibility of every position in his game. He is relentless in this regard. You can visually see this as he explains his games. Waitzkin's winning primarily comes--instead of any excess of brilliant individual moves--simply from a motivation to out work mentally his opponent in any particular game. It is amazing to watch this play out move by move in the live championship games on the DVD.

How does this relate to horses? Well, we have B. Wayne Hughes on BC day acknowledging the Q as to what he had to do with the success of Court Vision--"all we did was buy him" as one end of the scale, and Waitzkin's attention to detail at the other end. For Court Vision, and our horses, presumably somebody was paying attention to the details and outworking the opponents. As a e.g. of this, what might have been the result of the Classic had Baffert, like Mott, brought Game On Dude into Churchill 4 weeks pre-race to adjust to the surface etc? Or, had Baffert instructed Chantel Sutherland to take a look to her right rear when she had the lead in late stretch. Little stuff.

So, you see I'm trying to justify the details involved in taking the hypothetical horse around the track. Continue next post. Here's the link to Waitzkin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Waitzkin
Training:
Complications. Will post on training after the hypo horse get's around the track.

2011 BC Impressions

I did watch all the races. Misc. thoughts:

B Wayne Hughes explaining his role in the success ofCourt Vision "All we did was buy him."

Distorted Humor-Moscow Ballet win the BC Classic. Give me a break. Or perhaps, the ghost of Nijinsky II alive and well?

There's a lot on Drosselmeyer's page that I have a history of disliking, starting with the grossly overpriced Distorted Humor. Redemption for Win Star, and congrats to them. Class outfit!

Drosselmeyer trained at Churchill 4 weeks pre race.
An indication D at top of his game--in terms of appearance, looked good.
Hey, we knew from the 2010 Belmont that the horse can run.
D's win was other than a surprise. Several mentioned D pre-race.

Perfect race strategy/perfect jock to carry it out/perfect execution.

Am springing the three bucks for the PPs. Comment on them next week. How/why does D get shot out of a cannon at the quarter pole when the rest of the field dies. Hint--look at Mott/2011 race strategy for this horse!

As for Uncle Mo, serious head bobbing on the back stretch likely indicated state of his training. Mo is a natural head bobber but u can see this exaggerated. Mo has looked weak in all of his races and gallops. After I picked him to win, I saw a blurb that Mo's last breeze was disappointing.

The 3 yr. old factor with Mo. 3 yr olds tend to give way when challenged by older. Nature of things.

Why, what, how was I thinking concerning the trainer of Momba?

Note to myself: never ever again stick out the RR neck for a Plecher trained horse. Ingrained rule.

Category deserving vociferous congrats while utterly, from personal experience, unexplainable: Don Von Hemmel winning a BC race.

Goldi lost a step perhaps?

Sirs/stud fee of BC Winners:
Distorted Humor $100,000
Tapit $80,000
Smart Strike $75000
Montjeau 75000 lbs.
More Than Ready $40,000
Afleet Alex $25000
Kitten's Joy $25000
High Chaparel 25000 lbs
Perfect Soul $15,000
Posse $10,000
Eddington $5000
Gulch retired
Empire Maker Japan
Concord's Tune without a list
A Congrats filly ran a 1:07 and change over the weekend. That stud fee is $15,000.00

Broodmare Sires of BC Winners
Moscow Ballet
Storm Bird
Sir Cat
Sure Blade
That's A Nice
Slewacide
King of Kings
In Excess
Green Desert
Wild Again
Sea of Secrets
Slew Gin Fizz
Catenius
AP Indy
Dixie Land Band

Breeder's Cup Classic

Avoid putting down too much hard earned cash on the RR Blog pick for winner of the BC Classic since this comes with absolutely zero following of the horses, and without looking at PPs, although I've seen a race and a vid here and there, and weirdly I am thinking this is an easy choice. RR BC Classic pick at bottom of page.

Then there's this.

http://www.oaklawn.com/horseman-bios/bios/charles-scooter-dickey/

The trainer of Wind Flyer, and Flat Out. I saw Wind Flyer run at Ak Sar Ben and decline betting on any horse trained by the trainer of Wind Flyer. Dickey trained at Ak Sar Ben. Nothing against him. Nothing for him. Typical Ak Sar Ben trainer. Every once in a while one of these old goats will come up with a horse. My thought is that Flat Out will be short.

Then there's So You Think, winner of 5 million+, impressive race record and trained by the killer of George Washington. I don't think so.

This might be a fairly easy call that will come into focus on hindsight. There's a horse in this race by a trainer whose training I've termed just below the minimum to achieve fracture resistance, yet this horse is still here. That's a caveat. But this horse can out foot any of these and only reason you'd decline picking him as a runaway is the thought that he might be short. Trouble with that is the trainer of this horse is pretty smart, and I'd think the horse would be trained to go the distance. At any rate, I also believe a horse that can do a mile in 1:33 can have his nose in front for 1.25 miles on that mile conditioning alone. As always, fear the sawed off trainer with the white hair, but this seems an easy call: Uncle Mo.

Considerations As The Work Begins

Interesting post on "The Rail" yesterday noting- to the effect- a $2000 yearling purchase just won the Melborne Cup, this years Arc winners cost something like $12,000 as a yearling etc. showing once again questionable correlations price to success. How to get the cheap horse into the winner's circle, or the expensive one for that matter, is the current subject.

As to leads, a vid of Hamazing Destiny--link below--shows a lot. You may be impressed with the rider's excellent form and control, but there are several hints of questionable training in this short vid. Take a moment to watch and see if you can see them.

http://www.drf.com/events/breeders-cup-workouts

Notice failure both to change leads into the turn and more importantly complete obliviousness to it. The vid also gives a better view of the excessive cuppiness of the track that you see on certain mornings, and the large Q, what is a valuable BC horse doing out there in the worst of the track conditions. In one 20 sec. vids several hints we might want to avoid putting any money on this horse. The trainer appears to be, ooooops, D.W. Lukas.

For our own horse into the 2m gallop from the 5f pole the rider approaches having warmed up from the 3/16th pole approaches the 6f with the considerations outlined last post. Some of these will be automatic from custom and experience, some particular to this horse. Let's assume for sake of discussion the rider has a well trained push button type horse. Take a look at the bad actor a little later.

As the last post noted, everyone of these works is going to be a little nerve racking, certainly for the trainer, and should be for the rider. Why? There is so much at stake. As noted, training is moving bricks from point A to point B but under pressure and with an animal that may cooperate or may decline on this particular day. We need get certain things accomplished with this work and hence the nail biting quality of it. For the rider this mental pressure to get it right is there right at the 6f pole 1f before the work.

With the necessity to accurately complete his mission our rider hits the 6f pole and begins the speed up to :15s. Our trained animal has anticipated what's coming because it recognizes the same routine gone through with every track gallop, and hence may already be pulling the rider. The rider at this point likely has a full cross on the reins--which is simply a logical two hand hold with hands 7 or 8 inches apart and the excess rein lying between the hands.

Somewhere around the 6f the rider is going to tighten this cross a little so that there is change of bit pressure in the horse's mouth. For the race horse--as opposed to the dressage horse trained for months in one single intricate movement of the bit--any bit pressure is a call for response and speed up and generally the horse will react merely to feeling the rider's hands shift a little on the reins--this is the horse's flight response at work-- or perhaps there is a change of rein holding from full cross to half cross (the half cross removes some of the rein from the rider's hand, makes it easier to put excess rein to one side, and frees up the hand for whip use).

Non-riders often believe there is some magic in the feel and manipulation of the bit in the horse's mouth. And indeed some jocks will come off the track bragging about their "soft" hands giving the implication this jock somehow has some talent in the hands giving him special qualifications with the horse. For our work to come, is there special talent in the jock's hands, next post.
Training:
Tues. 11/1--riderless speed work.
Wed. 11/2--off. rain.

Rider IntoThe Clubhouse Turn

As a BC aside, how unsurprising is the dull work put in by Havre Degrace on Monday with the horse's trainer immediately observing that, of course, was all "we" wanted? Readers of this blog know how little sympathy I have for these connections, from who you notice the absence in their interview of any concern for "their horse". With them its always to the effect "we might as well give this a shot here or there". Forget about what they did to 8Belles. An up the track performance from Havre is expected Sat with the caveat that I have done zero following of the BC this year. This prediction will test my own off the cuff observational abilities from the short vid I saw of the next to the last work of Havre Degrace. Some small evidence there the horse was traveling less than comfortably. Will see.

For here we're about to start a 5f to 5f 2m gallop with our rider having successfully navigated into the correct lead into the Clubhouse turn. What is and what should be going on in the rider's mind at this point and what does he see up ahead.

Varying circumstances depending on the particular rider.

While any jock doing this work might be on automatic pilot at this point, we'd still hope he'd be mentally into the work instead of considering his afternoon rides or whatever. For purposes of discussion, let's assume our trainer has enough influence, mental pull, and previous conditioning of this rider that our exercise rider indeed is into the work and trying to get out of it the maximum.

On board the horse as we pass the 7f pole multiple considerations for the rider. What path to take through the cuppiness of the race track, anybody coming out of the gate up ahead, sun (at the Woodlands) shining directly into the eye balls, clockwise traffic up ahead heading to the gate, or some fast galloper to the inside coming up behind, all while simultaneously monitoring the horse itself for gradual speed up, control, safety--is the horse showing any signs of injury(?)--reins held correctly, hand on whip at the correct position on the handle. And then the performance stuff--we're in Ivers words rounding on the bit to get a stride although it's completely other than that (for a future discussion).

We are trying to get into a maximum bounding stride for the horse which is something the jock should be aware of every work. The good one's do this naturally because they recognize the importance. The aim would be in every workout to get the horse traveling a little more efficiently to maximum efficiency for this horse. As a e.g. I've observed Uncle Mo traveling less efficiently than he was in those pre-Derby vids.

Some varying versions of the above will be going through the riders mind in the Clubhouse turn. It's a nerve racking thing. Horse racing with these unpredictable animals is moving the brick from point A to point B. There are definite things we're trying to get done with an animal that may be cooperating today, or it may be completely otherwise.

As the speed up from :18s into :16s at the 6f proceeds the sand below becomes more a visual blur and the divets are passing by you at an increasingly faster rate. If we have a cooperative horse today--and let's observe the different personalities--if we're on a nervous deerlike animals, getting them into the 2m gallop in general a matter of "restraint". This horse is going to want to go, and the rider will be more trying to figure how to hold the animal to the speed.

If in contrast we're on my own horse, Lazy Rod, and in particularly on a day he's in lazy mode, as we pass the 6f the consideration is how to get the horse up to speed.

As we approach the 5f, next post.
Training:
Sun. 10/30: 4 times up and down the hill last heat in high :14.
Mon. 10/31 on last day of Oct. we do get the fast one. Small deal for most horses. For ours it qualifies as a big workout. Rod was at least at :13.5 sec/f on the last heat and maybe a little faster. Nob reported the stride of this surprised him as he was expecting the big bounding stride with head held fairly high that we see in the riderless paddock. Instead the strides were short chopping ground pounders with the horse's head going low in the effort. Probably inexperience though will see what kind of stride we get at speed as this goes. Horse panics at the dismount nearly losing the rider.
Tues. 11/1: Off.
Wed. 11/2: 36 hrs. after last w/o due to being in hurry decision to go riderless. The horse is into it for about 5 or 6 speed furlongs which go about as expected as we've done very little speed work while transitioning to all tack work.